Helmer is co-creator of “Teachers” web series
Following the recent announcement that its original web series “Teachers” was ordered to pilot by TV Land, commercial production company Cap Gun Collective has signed the series’ co-creator and director Matt Miller for U.S. representation.
Miller developed the “Teachers” web series alongside the sketch group The Katydids and produced it through Cap Gun TV, Cap Gun’s hybrid production studio that develops, produces, and markets original content for multiple platforms. The series includes dozens of webisodes edited by Tim Warnamen of The Whitehouse, and was first distributed through The Onion’s digital platform. Along with being one of Chicago’s most accomplished young theatre directors, Miller spent five years as a casting director for Paskal Rudnicke Casting.
“I first met Matt Miller when I was a terrible actor auditioning for commercials and he was running casting sessions,” recalled Cap Gun exec producer Matt Abramson. “We stayed in touch over the years, and when he approached us for ‘Teachers,’ we instantly knew it was a great fit. Very early into production, we realized that he is an extremely talented film director, and as shown in those episodes, he really knows how to get the best from everyone.
For the past 15 years Miller has directed for theatres large and small throughout Chicagoland. His critically acclaimed 2013 production of “The Seafarer” for Seanachai Theatre received four stars from the Chicago Tribune and two extensions; other notable credits include work with Steppenwolf, Mary Arrchie, Lifeline Theatre and Profiles Theatre. Miller is currently an adjunct professor at DePaul University’s Theatre School and a member of the faculty at both the Second City Training Center and The Acting Studio Chicago. Miller is also a proud 15-year company member of Barrel of Monkeys, a group that provides creative writing workshops for Chicago Public Elementary Schools that lack arts funding.
“Matt Abramson and I had a great time collaborating on ‘Teachers,’ and I also know Cap Gun co-founder and director Alex Fendrich pretty well from the Second City scene, and have often had him in to visit my on-camera classes around town as a guest director. So for me there has been a tremendous amount of trust and comfort in working with Cap Gun from the very beginning.”
On the U.S. roster for Cap Gun Collective, Miller joins directors Fendrich, Abteen Bagheri, Docter Twins, Tom Haines, Tomas Mankovsky, Jeppe Rønde, Michael Sewandono and Spooner/Bonde.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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